Batak Alphabet Information
Origins of Brahmi script unclear. On Aramaic origin hypothesis:
Proto-Sinaitic alphabetDirect family relationships unclear. Sister scripts on hypothesis of common Kawi origin:
Balinese Baybayin Buhid Hanunó'o Javanese Lontara Old Sundanese Rencong Rejang TagbanwaThe Batak script, called locally surat Batak, is an abugida used to write the Austronesian Batak languages spoken by several million people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
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History
In most Batak communities, only the priests, or datu were able to use the Batak script, and used it mainly for magical texts and calendars. After the arrival of Europeans in the Batak lands, first German missionaries and, from 1878 onwards, the Dutch, the Batak script was, alongside the Roman script, taught in the schools, and teaching and religious materials were printed in the Batak script. Soon after the first World War the missionaries decided to discontinue printing books in the Batak script, not only for financial reasons but also because generally the Batak preferred using the Roman script. The script soon fell out of use and is now only used for ornamental purposes.
Origin
The Batak script was probably derived from Pallava and Old Kawi alphabets, which ultimately were derived from the Brahmi alphabet, the root of almost all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas.
Structure
Batak is written from up to down within one line, and left to right for lines. Like most abugidas, each consonant has an inherent vowel of /a/, unless there is a diacritic (in Toba Batak called pangolat) to indicate the lack of a vowel. Other vowels, final ŋ, and final velar fricative [x] are indicated by diacritics, which appear above, below, or after the letter. For example, ba is written ba (one letter); bi is written ba.i (i follows the consonant); bang is written baŋ (ŋ is above the consonant); and bing is baŋ.i. Final consonants are written with the pangolat (here represented by "#"): bam is ba.ma.#. However, bim is written ba.ma.i.#: the first diacritic belongs to the first consonant, and the second belongs to the second consonant, but both are written at the end of the entire syllable. Unlike most Brahmi-based scripts, Batak does not form consonant conjuncts.
Letters
Batak script is called surat na sampulu sia (the nineteen letters) or si-sia-sia. Each consonant has an inherent vowel of /a/.
The script varies by region and language. The major variants are between Karo, Mandailing, Pakpak/Dairi, Simalungun/Timur, and Toba:
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Batak letters are ordered differently depending on the language:
- Karo: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ya, nga, la, ca, nda, mba, i, u
- Mandailing: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ya, nga, la, nya, ca, i, u
- Pakpak/Dairi: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ca, ya, nga, la, i, u
- Simalungun/Timur: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ya, nga, la, nya, i, u
- Toba: a, ha, ka, ba, pa, na, wa, ga, ja, da, ra, ma, ta, sa, ya, nga, la, nya, i, u
Diacritics
Diacritics are used to change the pronunciation of a letter. They can change the vowel from the inherent /a/, mark a final [velar nasal] /ŋ/, mark a final [voiceless velar fricative|velar fricative] /x/, or indicate a final consonant with no vowel:
| Latin Trans. | Batak Diacritics | Latin Trans. | Batak Diacritics with /ka/ | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karo | Mand. | Pakp. | Sima. | Toba | Karo | Mand. | Pakp. | Sima. | Toba | |||
| -a | ka | |||||||||||
| -e |
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ke |
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| -i |
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ki |
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| -o |
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ko |
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| -ou | kou | |||||||||||
| -u | ku | |||||||||||
| -ng | kang | |||||||||||
| -h | kah | |||||||||||
| – | k | |||||||||||
Ligatures with U
The diacritic for U used by Mandailing, Pakpak, Simalungun, and Toba can form ligatures with its base letter:
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Tompi
In Mandailing, the diacritic tompi can be used to change the sound of some letters:
| ha | + | tompi | = | ka | sa | + | tompi | = | ca |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| + | = | + | = | ||||||
| + | = | + | = | ||||||
| + | = | + | = |
Placement of diacritics for Ng and H
The diacritics for Ng () and H () are usually written above spacing vowel diacritics instead of above the base letter. Examples: ping, pong, peh, and pih.
Diacritic reordering for closed syllables
Vowel diacritics are reordered for closed syllables (that is, syllables where the final consonant has no vowel). Consonants with no vowel are marked by the Batak pangolat or panongonan diacritic, depending on the language. When they are used for a closed syllable (like "tip"), both the vowel diacritic and the pangolat/panongonan are written at the end of the syllable.
Examples of closed syllables using pangolat:
| ta | + | vowel | + | pa | + | pangolat | = | syllable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| + | + | = | ||||||
| ta | + | pa | + | pangolat | = | tap | ||
| + | + | + | = | |||||
| ta | + | e | + | pa | + | pangolat | = | tep |
| + | + | + | = | |||||
| ta | + | e | + | pa | + | pangolat | = | tep |
| + | + | + | = | |||||
| ta | + | i | + | pa | + | pangolat | = | tip |
| + | + | + | = | |||||
| ta | + | o | + | pa | + | pangolat | = | top |
| + | + | + | = | |||||
| ta | + | u | + | pa | + | pangolat | = | tup |
Punctuation and Ornaments
Batak is normally written without spaces or punctuation (as scriptio continua). However special marks or bindu are occasionally used. They vary greatly in size and design from manuscript to manuscript.
| Examples | Name | Function |
|---|---|---|
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Bindu na metek (small bindu) | Begins paragraphs and stanzas |
| Bindu panarboras (rice-shaped bindu) | Variant of bindu na metek, serves same function | |
| Bindu judul (title bindu) | Separates a title from the body of the text | |
| Bindu pangolat | Trailing punctuation |
Unicode
Batak script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0.
Block
The Unicode block for Batak is U+1BC0 ... U+1BFF. Grey areas in the chart below indicate non-assigned code points:
| Batak[1] Unicode.org chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+1BCx | ᯀ | ᯁ | ᯂ | ᯃ | ᯄ | ᯅ | ᯆ | ᯇ | ᯈ | ᯉ | ᯊ | ᯋ | ᯌ | ᯍ | ᯎ | ᯏ |
| U+1BDx | ᯐ | ᯑ | ᯒ | ᯓ | ᯔ | ᯕ | ᯖ | ᯗ | ᯘ | ᯙ | ᯚ | ᯛ | ᯜ | ᯝ | ᯞ | ᯟ |
| U+1BEx | ᯠ | ᯡ | ᯢ | ᯣ | ᯤ | ᯥ | ᯦ | ᯧ | ᯨ | ᯩ | ᯪ | ᯫ | ᯬ | ᯭ | ᯮ | ᯯ |
| U+1BFx | ᯰ | ᯱ | ᯲ | ᯳ | ᯼ | ᯽ | ᯾ | ᯿ | ||||||||
Notes
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Rendering
Unicode fonts for Batak must handle several requirements to properly render text:
| Rendering Requirements | Examples | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Latin Trans. | Image | Unicode Text | |
| Correct placement of one or more diacritics | ke | ᯂᯩ | |
| ke (Mand.) | ᯄ᯦ᯩ | ||
| ping | ᯇᯪᯰ | ||
| reng | ᯓᯩᯰ | ||
| Ligatures with U | hu (Mand.) | ᯄᯮ | |
| hu (Sima.) | ᯃᯮ | ||
| gu | ᯎᯮ | ||
| lu | ᯞᯮ | ||
| Diacritic reordering for closed syllables | tip | ᯖᯪᯇ᯲ | |
Gallery
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Batak book about the art of divination from a rooster (Robert C. Williams Paper Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
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Batak script carved into a bamboo tube with wooden stopper (Museum of the Tropics in Amsterdam, Netherlands)
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Bamboo inscribed with Simalungun Batak script (National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, Netherlands)
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Batak palm leaf book (Museum of the Tropics in Amsterdam, Netherlands)
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Book of formulas, recipes, and rules applied by Batak priests (Museum of the Tropics in Amsterdam, Netherlands)
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Magic book used by priests of the Toba Batak tribe (National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, Netherlands)
Sources
Kozok, Uli (January 2009) (in Indonesian). Surat Batak: Sejarah Perkembangan Tulisan Batak : Berikut Pedoman Menulis Aksara Batak Dan Cap Si Singamangaraja XII. Jakarta: Gramedia. ISBN 9799101530.
Everson, Michael; Kozok, Uli (7 October 2008), N3320R: Proposal for encoding the Batak script in the UCS, http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3320.pdf
Kozok, Uli. "Kursus Kilat Aksara Batak (Quick Course in Batak Script)" (in Indonesian). http://www.hawaii.edu/indolang/surat/kursus.html. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
External links
- Entry on Batak at Omniglot.com – A guide to writing systems
- Transtoba2 – Roman to Toba Batak script transliteration software by Uli Kozok and Leander Seige (GNU GPL)
- Uli Kozok's Batak Script website with free Batak fonts.
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Categories: Indonesian scripts | Brahmic scripts | North Sumatra | Batak
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